Food Tripping at Bayambang Food Bazaar 2025 and Beyond
The local food scene, however humble it may be, continues to open doors to new flavors and cuisines.
Here are the things I noticed and items I have tried:
- Shawarma is popular as ever.
- Cheese corn too.
- Senyora Violeta's puto bumbong continues to get a beeline of customers.
- Suddenly there are lots of stalls selling takoyaki. (I noticed, however, something missing in those I have tried so far: the ultra-thin shaved dried bonito flakes on top together with tiny nori bits.) Now when will someone with Japanese connection introduce okonomiyaki?
- Biryani seems to be popular too. I wonder why. Must be another OFW influence.
- Amng the novelties this year: There is panipuri at Fardin's Biryani House -- one of the Indian street foods made popular by food vloggers lately. I tried some, and found the dish a pretty sight and thus appetizing, but I am not sure how to describe what I just inhaled together with a watery sauce I couldn't figure out (tamarind?). And I am not sure if there were chickpeas in those pastry shell, as indicated in the recipes I Googled.
- I love the super-tasty chicken schnitzel at Gan Eden! Owned by our former colleague, Ces Martinez, and her Indian-born Israeli husband, Gan Eden is a new restobar in Brgy. Mangayao that fuses Middle Eastern with Southeast Asian cuisines. "We use authentic spices and ingredients directly sourced from the Middle East, and all our sauces are home-made," professes Ces, who we used to work with at the Nutrition Section until she quit and worked in Israel. "Try our specialty, chicken biryani," she urges me on. Of course I will, in situ, one of these days.
- I also noticed something new: a stall selling tiramisu, so I had to order one, which I hadn't sniffed for years and years. The delicate balancing act of flavors and textures between ladyfingers cookies, coffee, cocoa, and mascarpone cheese brought back memories of dining.
- Much earlier, I was looking for red dragonfruits in the market, but they seemed to be out of season. So when someone reported there were dragonfruits in one stall selling non-artificial powder fruit shakes at the bazaar, I ordered one (forgot to take a photo). It turned out to use only the bland white dragonfruit variety, but good enough for me.
- From other people's photos, I saw a stall selling those bright-orange Ilocano empanadas, and I also spotted a Chinese noodles and ramen stall which seems authentic, but that's for another day.
***
Outside the Food Bazaar, I tried an amusing Filipinized version of the Thai mango sticky rice: it used pirurutong rice, which is naturally violet, so it is a Pinoy-Thai fusion, you could say. Truth be told, long before Thai mango sticky rice, we were already being amused by what we thought back then as Antipolo's weird suman-at-mangga pairing and Lemery's shocking pancit+dinuguan. ...And what we considered hampaslupa people's favorites: ice cream in buns and stir-fried noodles in buns -- until we learned that these weird combos were so normal in Japan they could be bought at 7-11, haha.
***
Now when will the great cross-pollination between regional cuisines happen? There are hundreds and hundreds of Filipino dishes that are basically unknown outside certain towns, cities, and regions.
***
Once again, thanks to those who gave me the other treats (in photos) this month. You know who you are.
***
Off-topic, but it's about food supplement, so it is still about food:
Who else has tried Swanson's ashwagandha food supplement? (Mine contains magnesium stearate too.) Kindly DM me your experience so far.
The local food scene, however humble it may be, continues to open doors to new flavors and cuisines.
Here are the things I noticed and items I have tried:
- Shawarma is popular as ever.
- Cheese corn too.
- Senyora Violeta's puto bumbong continues to get a beeline of customers.
- Suddenly there are lots of stalls selling takoyaki. (I noticed, however, something missing in those I have tried so far: the ultra-thin shaved dried bonito flakes on top together with tiny nori bits.) Now when will someone with Japanese connection introduce okonomiyaki?
- Biryani seems to be popular too. I wonder why. Must be another OFW influence.
- Amng the novelties this year: There is panipuri at Fardin's Biryani House -- one of the Indian street foods made popular by food vloggers lately. I tried some, and found the dish a pretty sight and thus appetizing, but I am not sure how to describe what I just inhaled together with a watery sauce I couldn't figure out (tamarind?). And I am not sure if there were chickpeas in those pastry shell, as indicated in the recipes I Googled.
- I love the super-tasty chicken schnitzel at Gan Eden! Owned by our former colleague, Ces Martinez, and her Indian-born Israeli husband, Gan Eden is a new restobar in Brgy. Mangayao that fuses Middle Eastern with Southeast Asian cuisines. "We use authentic spices and ingredients directly sourced from the Middle East, and all our sauces are home-made," professes Ces, who we used to work with at the Nutrition Section until she quit and worked in Israel. "Try our specialty, chicken biryani," she urges me on. Of course I will, in situ, one of these days.
- I also noticed something new: a stall selling tiramisu, so I had to order one, which I hadn't sniffed for years and years. The delicate balancing act of flavors and textures between ladyfingers cookies, coffee, cocoa, and mascarpone cheese brought back memories of dining.
- Much earlier, I was looking for red dragonfruits in the market, but they seemed to be out of season. So when someone reported there were dragonfruits in one stall selling non-artificial powder fruit shakes at the bazaar, I ordered one (forgot to take a photo). It turned out to use only the bland white dragonfruit variety, but good enough for me.
- From other people's photos, I saw a stall selling those bright-orange Ilocano empanadas, and I also spotted a Chinese noodles and ramen stall which seems authentic, but that's for another day.
***
Outside the Food Bazaar, I tried an amusing Filipinized version of the Thai mango sticky rice: it used pirurutong rice, which is naturally violet, so it is a Pinoy-Thai fusion, you could say. Truth be told, long before Thai mango sticky rice, we were already being amused by what we thought back then as Antipolo's weird suman-at-mangga pairing and Lemery's shocking pancit+dinuguan. ...And what we considered hampaslupa people's favorites: ice cream in buns and stir-fried noodles in buns -- until we learned that these weird combos were so normal in Japan they could be bought at 7-11, haha.
***
Now when will the great cross-pollination between regional cuisines happen? There are hundreds and hundreds of Filipino dishes that are basically unknown outside certain towns, cities, and regions.
***
Once again, thanks to those who gave me the other treats (in photos) this month. You know who you are.
***
Off-topic, but it's about food supplement, so it is still about food:
Who else has tried Swanson's ashwagandha food supplement? (Mine contains magnesium stearate too.) Kindly DM me your experience so far.
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